The story
In a small town in County Sligo, Connell is the popular, anxious athlete and Marianne the clever, prickly outsider whose family employs his mother as a cleaner. In their final months of school they begin a relationship they keep hidden from everyone, and the series follows how that bond bends, strains and endures as they move on to Trinity College Dublin and the uncertain years beyond.
Why it matters
Normal People shows what BBC Three could achieve as an online service: co-produced with Hulu and released as a full box set on iPlayer before its BBC One run, it gave BBC Three its best-ever week on iPlayer with over 16.2 million requests. It became the BBC's most-streamed series of 2020 and won Paul Mescal a BAFTA.
Born online
Announced in May 2019 as a BBC Three and Hulu adaptation, Normal People was released in full as a BBC Three box set on iPlayer on 26 April 2020, a day before BBC One began airing it. Hulu premiered it in the US on 29 April 2020.
Notable facts
- Its launch week brought over 16.2 million iPlayer requests, BBC Three's best week on the platform at the time. (source)
- It became the most-streamed BBC series of 2020, with 62.7 million views between April and November. (source)
- It received four nominations at the 2020 Primetime Emmy Awards on behalf of US co-production partner Hulu. (source)
- Sally Rooney co-wrote the adaptation of her own 2018 novel with Alice Birch and Mark O'Rowe. (source)